


In the Shadows of Ourselves

by the eternal feminine (redpenninja)



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: F/F, Mutual Pining, Politics, Shadow of Revan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-06 00:30:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11024796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redpenninja/pseuds/the%20eternal%20feminine
Summary: A series of oneshots centering around Lana and the former Cipher Nine as they attempt to navigate the labyrinth of Sith Intelligence and each other. Post-Shadow of Revan, and will probably span to Ziost and KOTFE.





	1. Sleeping with Sharks

Valdona returns to the _Phantasm_ to find that Darth Marr has already sent her new clearance and set of authorization codes. It’s more than she ever had as Cipher Nine, and more than she could even access while working independently. She has clearance to go back now; she can dock the Phantasm in a priority hangar on Dromund Kaas, Ziost, the spacedock. She can go home.

Yet she surprises herself when she realizes she doesn’t want to. Not yet. There’s still work to be done, maybe a trip back to Rishi to ensure the remaining Revanite bases had been truly cleared. And she knows Marr will expect her to help with setting a new order of things; he couldn’t have made her Commander and granted her so much clearance and authority without making her pay the price. Sith Intelligence could—and will—benefit from her. She won’t let them make the same mistakes that Intelligence had, not after seeing Shara. For now, though, it’s certainly going to be all red tape and backroom deals and bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is for Sith and moffs. Bureaucracy is for Lana.

“Agent, hey!” Kaliyo calls from behind her, stepping onto the bridge and coming to stand by Val. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes! How’d everything go on the ground?”

“As well as it could have,” Valdona sighs. “Revan is gone, but Vitiate…disappeared.”

Kaliyo sucks in a breath through her teeth. “Yeah, he destroyed my visibility with that voodoo dark sky shit. That’s why I turned tail and flew back to the staging point. Hope you don’t mind.”

Her voice leaves no room for Val to assume that Kaliyo would care if she had minded. “I didn’t even notice you’d flown off.”

“Don’t be rude,” Kaliyo says. “I’m a better pilot than Lokin.”

“Only because he’s half-blind.”

Kaliyo isn’t interested in continuing their banter anymore. Instead, her focus has turned to Valdona’s shiny new title, still flaring from the message console on the ship’s dashboard.

“Sith Intelligence Commander, huh? So much for getting out from under their thumb.” The displeasure in her voice is unmistakable, with a little tinge of worry that Val has grown to appreciate, but never discuss.

“Don’t jump down my throat just yet,” Valdona says. “I’ve already told Marr I’m going to continue to work independently.”

“And now you’ve got permission from Mom and Dad,” Kaliyo shrills. “How sweet.”

“There’s no one above me,” Valdona promises. “Lana may be minister, but Marr has given us both equal authority and clearance. And I still don’t have to answer to the Dark Council, or even Lana herself if I so chose.”

“Aw, you say it now, but you will.” Kaliyo wags a finger. “We all saw how moony you got back on Rishi when she finally showed face. Guess it pays to sleep with the boss, right, Commander?”

“We didn’t sleep together,” Valdona reminds her tightly. “And she isn’t my boss.”

“Sure, sure,” Kaliyo agrees. “But I bet flirting with Blondie didn’t hurt your promotion.”

Another brutal reminder at just how long Kaliyo has traveled with her, how much she must’ve picked up on just by watching Val and the way she speaks and stands and laughs. In their very early days, before Val was assigned to deep cover in the SIS, Kaliyo had teased her for flirting so blatantly with Watcher Two to score the best recon assignments, the fastest speeders, the newest ship upgrades. It had worked, but Val had always wondered at what cost. Her question had ultimately been answered not long after Shara had become Keeper, when Val spent an entire briefing staring only at Keeper’s lips and trying to draw out a smile.

“I assure you that isn’t how I ended up Commander,” Valdona says. “Honestly, I doubt Lana had much a say in the matter at all.”

Kaliyo studies her for a moment before her silver eyes ignite with gleeful realization. “So if you didn’t bang her, and she didn’t promote you…then you must actually like her. Damn, Val, to be honest I didn’t really think that was your style.”

“It isn’t,” Valdona says blandly.

“You gonna tell me you were in love me with?”

“No, because I wasn’t,” Valdona grits out. “Can we drop it?”

“If you insist, Agent,” Kaliyo relents, but her eyes still glow. “So, we’ll be seeing much more of Blondie now, I guess. Maybe…much, much more?” She flicks her tongue out and runs the tip across her bottom lip.

“Know when to quit, Kali,” Valdona says. “And besides, we’re going to be working together. We decided to keep things professional.”

“Professional like us?” Kaliyo snickers under her breath and inches closer to Val. She reaches down and gives Val’s ass a sharp squeeze, digging her nails right on the curve. When Valdona gasps in spite of herself, Kaliyo hums in approval and presses a kiss under Val’s jaw.

Valdona turns out of Kaliyo’s grip and narrows her eyes. “Professional as in not sleeping with, flirting with, or even breathing in the general direction of each other.”

They were good rules; Valdona had come up with them on the walk back to her landing zone. She didn’t plan on working with Lana often, only when absolutely necessary. Working independently together had been one thing, lying low and skirting away from Republic and Empire alike, as Val had grown accustomed to. But Lana isn’t on the run anymore, and Theron’s back inside the SIS. Order has returned, this time with Val on the inside of it rather than fringing the edge of Imperial authority. She trusts Lana, wants to believe that they can make a better Intelligence, a stronger Empire. But Lana is Sith. And that will always come first.

“Sounds fun,” Kaliyo says with a barbed smile. She glances up at Valdona through her thin silver lashes. “You ever want some real fun, you know where to find me.”

“Oh, I know.” They settle into a comfortable silence, listening to the engines warm up while they wait for clearance to leave Yavin 4 behind them. Above, silver warships streak across the vibrant blue sky, headed away from one another. In a few hours the truce will be broken; she’ll go back to reading reports about Theron Shan rather than talking with him, back to being sent military files and staging points rather than slicing into and extricating them, back to being called _Commander_ or _Agent_ rather than _Val_. Lana had called her _Commander Mordecai_ after they’d said their private goodbyes. She ought to get used to calling Lana _Lord_ or _Miss_ or something.

But that can wait. When the remaining ground control approves their departure, Valdona sets course for Nar Shaddaa instead of home to Dromund Kaas or back to Rishi. Lana has probably already left for Kaas City, probably traveling with Darth Marr himself. They’ll expect her return soon, but she won’t be any good to the new agency unless she can catch her breath for a moment, and force herself to stop thinking about her own little hut in the seclusion of the Rishii village, with Lana by her side


	2. Stars and Shadows

“They’ll never approve that,” Lana warns, staring pointedly at Val over her datapad. “We’re lucky enough that Marr pardoned you after everything.”

“Yes, dismantling an entire conspiracy was very treacherous of me,” Valdona says.

From across her desk, Lana appears unamused. The desktop is clean and free of clutter, no holophotos or personal notes, just Lana’s datapad and her holocomm. Val had been disappointed when she’d first walked into Lana’s new office, high in the tower of the former Imperial Intelligence building. She’d imagined Lana’s office as brighter, clean and fresh but not so clinical. But instead the windows were shut, the walls and shelves bare. Valdona has her own office down the hall, but she hadn’t filled it with even a chair yet. Her stays at Sith Intelligence HQ are never longer than they have to be.

“And how about Revan? Surely if I was a threat to the Empire I would have sided with him,” Valdona continues.

Lana narrows her eyes. “Don’t make this hard, Commander. I’m sorry I had to bring you home for this, but we need to fill the empty posts. And I thought you said you wanted a hand in reforming Intelligence.”

“I do,” Valdona sighs.

It isn’t Lana’s fault, not really, but she’d certainly been putting the _Sith_ in Sith Intelligence as of late. “But it’ll never be reformed if we keep allowing the Dark Council to interfere. I can’t be everywhere at once, despite what the tabloids used to say. I need my own team that I can count on to answer and act if I call.”

“I can’t agree to that. You know I can’t,” Lana says. She leans forward in her high-backed chair and for once looks like she means what she says. “This isn’t Manaan anymore. I can’t disobey. I can’t fail this. You of all people should understand that.”

In her velvety voice it doesn’t sound cruel, but Val feels the words pierce straight through her chest all the same. She had never outright disobeyed the Council, never acted against the Empire, against home. And yet…they had given her a keyword all the same. She can’t risk getting sucked back in, can’t risk dragging Lana down with her. She takes a deep breath and forces a serene smile.

“I do,” Valdona says. Lana doesn’t look convinced. “You’re the one they want to see. This is your agency, Lana. I’ll be your insurance, but I don’t have a place in the hierarchy.”

Lana heaves a sigh and comes around the desk, settling into the chair beside Val. She holds out a hand and waits for Valdona to slip hers into it. Through their gloves, they don’t _truly_ touch, but Lana runs her finger over Val’s knuckles all the same.

“That isn’t what I meant, Val,” Lana says softly. “But I can’t tell you you’re wrong. There’s nothing that they can do now that Marr pardoned you, but many of them still want your head on a platter and the Codex in their chambers.” “

And I haven’t even been Commander for a month,” Valdona says.

“You still are Commander. Whether you want it or not, we’re going to need you,” Lana says. She disentangles their hands and gives Val a small smile. “You’ll have to act where I can’t.”

“Nothing I’m not used to,” Valdona says, getting to her feet and glancing down at Lana. “I suppose this means no more business meetings.”

“If arguing with me at every turn is your idea of business, then yes, no more meetings.”

An odd wash of sentimentality floods over Val and she clasps her hands behind her back to keep herself from reaching out to Lana.

“If you call, I’ll answer,” Valdona promises. “Whatever you need.”

“I appreciate it,” Lana says. “And I won’t interfere with your work. I’ll even help, if I can. If you even need it.”

Foolishly, Val had gotten so used to having Lana around, so used to counting on her and working with her. Foolishly, she hadn’t considered that it could affect her independence, or that it would end. But it sounds like a goodbye now. A final one, without the hope that they’d meet again as the one on Manaan had been.

She sticks out a hand for Lana to shake in that firm, solid way of hers. For a moment, she thinks Lana will yank her closer and kiss her, but instead she lets Val’s hand drop.

“May the Force serve you well, Commander,” Lana says, all business again. She retreats to the safety of her chair behind the desk.

“And you, Miss Beniko.”

Val wastes no time in leaving Dromund Kaas after that. But on the flight away, she handpicks her shadow team from the recruitment files, intending to reach out to them personally and work out the details of their assignments to monitor the new Intelligence. Lana can have her shining stars, but they’ll need protection of their own, regardless if they know about it or not.


End file.
